Preprosthetic mandibular vestibuloplasty with buccal mucosal graft. A 2-year follow-up study.
21 patients with denture retention problems due to lack of mandibular vestibular denture space and alveolar ridge atrophy had a vestibuloplasty with free grafting of check mucosa performed under local anaesthesia on an out-patient basis. Follow-up examinations based on metric records showed that 18% of the sulcus extension is lost during the first post-operative month, but regained by the time of the 6-month control, leaving 99% of the surgically created sulcus extension as a permanent gain. The grafted check mucosa served well as a denture-bearing tissue, and almost all patient had a significant improvement of denture retention and stability. Complications were few. The biology of healing is discussed in the light of recent concepts of wound healing.
D000368:Aged; D001284:Atrophy; D003781:Denture Retention; D003826:Denture, Complete, Lower; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000637:transplantation*; D014727:Vestibuloplasty / Q000379:methods*; D014945:Wound Healing